The ESCWA report Annual Digest of Social Protection Reforms in the Arab Region, 2024 is the third edition of a regional series documenting publicly announced social protection reforms across all 22 Arab countries. It reviews changes in social insurance, social assistance, labour-market policies, subsidies, delivery systems and institutional frameworks, with the aim of supporting regional learning and policy exchange.
Key insights:
The report recorded 135 policy developments. Social insurance represented 46% and social assistance 40%, while system-level measures accounted for 6%; general subsidies and active labour-market policies each represented 4% (Figure 3, report page 16).
Poverty and social exclusion and old-age protection were the most common functions, each accounting for 17% of developments. Disability-related measures rose from 26 developments in 2023 to 39 in 2024, or 14% of the total, while social health protection declined from 15% to 7% (Figure 5, pages 18–19).
The nature of reforms shifted. Design changes represented 32% of developments, down from 51% in 2023, while organizational changes increased from 8% to 21%. Delivery reforms accounted for 27%, reflecting increased use of digital registration, contribution-payment and benefit-delivery systems (Figure 8, page 21).
Shock-responsive measures accounted for only 17% of developments, compared with much higher levels in earlier editions. Of the 23 measures linked to shocks, only four were permanent. The share reached 50% in low-income countries but only 4% in high-income countries (Figures 12 and 13, page 24).
Financial sustainability and technology received greater attention. Fourteen countries introduced 29 measures to improve or maintain financing, compared with 24 in 2023 and 20 in 2022. Technology-related changes represented 19% of all developments, rising to 29% in high- and upper-middle-income countries (Figures 14 and 15, page 25).
Country examples show both expansion and structural reform. Morocco’s Direct Social Assistance programme grew from about 1 million households in December 2023 to more than 3.9 million in September 2024. Egypt expanded Takaful and Karama to approximately 5.2 million families, while Oman introduced cash benefits that reached more than 1.23 million children, 167,687 older persons and 42,253 persons with disabilities. Lebanon, Libya, the Comoros and Palestine also introduced or developed national social protection strategies.
